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Something I HATE

Alright, now a days not to much ruffles my feathers once the dish is out to who ever. But with one exception and I'm sure many of you will agree. I hate those people who automatically reach for the damn salt! even before the dish hits the table there they are getting primed and ready to douse the dish with extra salt without even getting the time to smell it let alone taste the dish. I hate that. Got into it with my dad today about that when after I had some pizza (which was very good) comes over and puts kosher salt over it.

"That's the secret." he tells me

Now, there was no meat or such just plan cheese but still damn it give it a taste first off and if you do for god sakes don't do it right in front of me. I told him basically you're telling me that I don't know how to season things right. (And oddly enough he NEVER seasons his hash browns)

Oh, I know some people are like that but still for the love of God please just taste the food before you go about turning it into a salt lick. I have to watch my salt so I switched to sea salt less sodium so I know that things wont taste as salty but it enhances the flavor if you ask me. I know that you can't always season things to everyone's liking. If we tried I think we would take the nearest knife and either kill ourselves or more likely another person.

My wife frequently reminds me that if there's not enough salt in the food, it can be added at the table, but you can't do anything about it if the food's over salted. Since it's such a personal thing, I figure it's better to use a bit less than too much.

My wife is crazy about salt, she likes lots of it, and she gets excited about good salts, and she LOVES salt on pizza. Drives her nuts on when she sees people make pizza without salting it.

That said(!):

The secret?! What secret? Like you didn't know about SALT?! How does he know you didn't salt it, or use a salty sauce, or whatever! Maybe the real secret is that you baked it over a dead raccoon. You made it, any secrets are yours to disclose!

It's funny how dads can be *just* the right person to be the perfect storm of annoying, endearing, misdirected, and plain rude all at once.

Well, in some of these guys defense, there's a difference between seasoning something and salting it. Seasoning is done during the course of cooking for very specific reasons, not all of them based on taste (at least not initially). In fact, I usually consider seasoning to be using salt in such a way as that the food doesn't taste salty. When you are using salt to actually impart the taste of salt, you aren't seasoning, you are salting. There are some people that just like things to taste "salty". That's what salt at the table is for, IMO. Salting at the table almost never seasons food, it just makes it salty, and some people just want there food to be salty...

That being said, salt isn't an option at my table. You eat it the way I want it to taste, and if you don't like it you tell me so.

Well, in some of these guys defense, there's a difference between seasoning something and salting it. Seasoning is done during the course of cooking for very specific reasons, not all of them based on taste (at least not initially). In fact, I usually consider seasoning to be using salt in such a way as that the food doesn't taste salty. When you are using salt to actually impart the taste of salt, you aren't seasoning, you are salting. There are some people that just like things to taste "salty". That's what salt at the table is for, IMO. Salting at the table almost never seasons food, it just makes it salty, and some people just want there food to be salty...

Exactly. If you made two identical dishes, one seasoning as you go, and one adding all the salt at the end, they will be completely different. You cant just "add salt at the table" to make up for improperly seasoned food.

That said, I once had an old, crotchety owner tell me to not salt ANYTHING because that is why we had salt shakers on the tables. And this was at an "upscale american pub" with 30-something dollar entrees.